Tag Archives: bally

Invaders Must Die

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Found something I’ve been after for a lonnnnnnng time today…

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It was rather serendipitous and I’m really excited about it! My parents had one of these Space Invaders cocktail table machines in their living room when I was a little kid and I was always sad they got rid of it. It’s been something I’ve been hunting off and on even before I leapt back into the hobby for real.

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Seems likely that it’s been in the area since new, and probably not swapped between locations too much. The cabinet is immaculate and doesn’t have any water damage, smashed corners, or other signs of hard use. A tag on the coin door identifies it as having been operated at some point by the still existent company Amusement Unlimited out of Eugene.

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It’s my first black and white game, definitely a bit different than what I’m used to working on. Right now the monitor works perfectly, and it doesn’t look too daunting to keep that way. Not a lot going on compared to the chassis for a color raster monitor.

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Sadly the board has issues. Right now all I get is this little cluster of partial characters.

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Again though, this thing looks dead simple compared to the newer stuff. Parts are nice and spread out on the PCBs too, so should be easy to work on. Based on my research so far I’m thinking there may be an issue with some of the RAM chips on the boards.

Behind glass

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Got a little further re-assembling the Midway CT I picked up. The Galaxian glass isn’t pretty, but it’s an original and the price was right.

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I laid down some cork from Ace Hardware between the table top and glass to give it an even surface to ride on and keep it from sliding. Need to get some more clips since the cab only came with three, and brace the door side of the table top since it’s warped enough to allow for a worrying amount of flex if you press on the long edge of the glass on that side.

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Got some complete original Gorf CT control panels on order from Quarter Arcade. Didn’t cost a whole lot more than the blank repros and saves me a bunch of work and parts gathering.

You don’t get to die yet…

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Picked up some ragged projects with good bones over the weekend, both Bally Midway cabs. The first is an upright, an old black and white game called Gun Fight. Released in 1975 it has the dubious distinction of being the first video game in which you killed human avatars.

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It’s in very nice shape, though it’s been a long time since any of the original electronics were inside. I grabbed it for $40, mostly for the coin door parts.

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Despite outward appearances it was very thoroughly stripped on the inside, even the switches were removed from the underside of the controls. Finding the parts to restore this one would be both difficult and expensive.

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The art is outstanding and the cab is solid though. A normal color raster monitor won’t clear the back of the case when installed, so I’m going to end up using an LCD. I’d rather compromise on the type of display than have to hack up the wood any more. It’ll likely end up a multi-game, but at least it will stay in circulation instead of being chopped up. I don’t intend on destroying any of the art or drilling the original control panel overlay.

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My other pickup was this sad looking little Midway cocktail table, a freebie (mostly, the price tag was taking away the necked Electrohome G07 tube that was mounted in it).

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Came home in a few pieces, I spent the afternoon putting it back together again.

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Hmmm…

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Gorf. That explains why it was converted!

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Glued the side back to the table top, and added a few brackets to brace it. Also installed a less messed up G07 I had handy.

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Repopulated the coin door with parts from the Gun Fight cabinet.

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Cleaned up the Tournament Arkanoid control panel a bit too. New overlay from Twisted Quarter makes it way easier on the eyes. I need to get a piece of plexi to put over it since the metal panel is swiss cheese underneath due to multiple conversions over the years.

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Things are a little off center since I wanted to use as many of the existing holes as possible. Not totally sure what I want this cabinet to stay as and modifying it permanently for a game that may only be in there a few months would be sorta dumb.